Indictments Expected In Valujet Crash

July 13, 1999|By KEN KAYE Staff Writer and Staff Writer John Holland contributed to this report.

For the first time in modern U.S. airline history, maintenance workers face criminal charges for their role in a crash -- ValuJet Flight 592.

The Southern District of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami is expected to issue indictments today against at least three former SabreTech Corp. employees on charges of falsifying records and improperly handling hazardous materials, according to inside sources.

SabreTech was the maintenance contractor that packed the volatile oxygen canisters that caught fire and brought down the ValuJet DC-9 on May 11, 1996, killing all 110 on board.

The three workers include the two mechanics who prepared the canisters for shipment, and their supervisor.

Because the matter went before a federal grand jury, the charges likely will be felonies.

Officials of Sabreliner, the St. Louis company that owned SabreTech at the time of the accident, released a statement on Monday saying they were aware charges would be lodged imminently.

"If this happens, it will not only be unfair and inappropriate, but a sad day for civil aviation," said Kenneth Quinn, the attorney representing SabreTech. "This was an accident, not a crime."

Quinn noted the National Transportation Safety Board also found ValuJet and the Federal Aviation Administration equally at fault in the crash.

ValuJet had ultimate responsibility for monitoring its maintenance work and the FAA should have scrutinized the airline's operations, the NTSB ruled.

Quinn said SabreTech should not be singled out.

"This tragedy exacted an extremely heavy toll on the victims, their families, the company and the individuals involved," he said. "Unlike ValuJet, this tragedy drove SabreTech out of business. No useful purpose can be served by trying to mete out further punishment."

ValuJet has since been merged into AirTran Airlines.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on Monday.

Quinn said future air-crash investigations will be hampered if companies and employees fear prosecution.

"We need to focus on preventing future crashes by giving authorities as much access as possible to candid and complete information about the causes of an accident," he said. "Declaring accidents as potential crime scenes will only prevent open inquiries of accidents, dry up sources of information and fail to prevent more tragedies."

ValuJet commissioned SabreTech to pull about 140 used oxygen-generating canisters from three of its planes in early 1996. Most of the canisters still had powerful oxidizing chemicals in them.

According to the work card, SabreTech mechanics were supposed to disarm the canisters by placing small plastic caps over their triggering mechanisms. Saying they had no caps available, the mechanics improvised, disarming the canisters in a way they thought achieved the same level of safety. However, the mechanics signed the work order indicating the caps had been used. They later would be fired for doing so.

SabreTech officials identified the mechanics as Eugene Florence and Mauro Valenzuela and their supervisor as Danny Gonzalez.

The canisters, packed in five boxes, were loaded into ValuJet's forward cargo hold. ValuJet claims it never wanted the canisters back; SabreTech said they were to be returned under the work order.

A major fire broke out aboard the DC-9 six minutes after it took off from Miami International Airport, bound for Atlanta. The pilots attempted to turn back but the plane plunged into the Everglades. Three months later, in August 1996, the FBI raided the SabreTech compound at Miami International, seizing records and files.

SabreTech closed its Miami operation in January 1997. The company continued doing business under Sabreliner's Dimension Aviation unit, based in Phoenix, but that was sold to an Orlando firm last month.

Families of ValuJet victims said they would be disappointed if ValuJet and the FAA do not face criminal charges as well.

One, James Landrum, of Plano, Texas, who lost his sister-in-law, Terri Bell, in the crash, said he would be "mad as hell. It's easy to blame low-level improperly trained employees," he said.

Sharon Jarvis Moss, of Gastonia, N.C., who lost her brother Daniel in the crash, said, "ValuJet may have farmed out the work, but they couldn't farm out the responsibility.''